We are now done with the first official week of CBT (community based training). We’ve had sessions on Safety and Security and Health which were surprising – they make it seem like you WILL get robbed and you WILL get amoebas, both of which are very likely, but hopefully with our training we will know what to look out for and how to avoid certain dangerous situations. We also had a little more language and technical training, but the first week I think moves a little slower than the others; they finally gave us a schedule for training and told us about the tests and interviews that we had to pass in order to officially become a volunteer. It was a little overwhelming, but I’m sure that if we just take it one day at a time we will get everything done. We have some homework to do a community analysis and then present it to the other groups next week in a creative way so tomorrow we have to talk to the president of the community and interview people on the streets to find out more information about the town and get their opinion on certain topics.
The other day my little sister Rubi got kicked in the face by a horse. She was riding her bike and it scared the horse. She apparently lost consciousness and her brother who got kicked in the shoulder brought her back to the house. She had a popsicle thing on it to keep down swelling, but then the mom put some herb on it that is supposed to help with swelling, so we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow. I am really interested in the traditional medicine and apparently the current minister of health is trying to promote collaboration of traditional and western medicine so it is possible that my placement could be in this area.
Yesterday I helped my mom and sisters make “humitas” which are basically tamales. We took the corn off the cob and ground it ourselves so everything was from scratch. We cooked them over a fire because my mom thinks its faster, and she also wanted to warm up the cuyes (guinea pigs) so we put a fire in the little room where they live. I gave them some chocolate chips as a gift because they are really expensive here ($10/bag) so we made some sweet ones and put the chocolate chips in them. The salty ones had cheese ad onion.
Today we went to Cayame like we do every Sunday, but this weekend there are fiestas in Cayambe so I got to see part of a parade. They are for Dia de San Pedro and to celebrate the end of the harvest so its kind of a combination of catholic and indigenous beliefs. People dress up in traditional clothing, do traditional dances, and I’m not really sure what else. It all lasts for a while; I think it started on Thursday and then on Tuesday people from the communities surrounding Cayambe will dance/walk down into town, then on either Thursday or Friday the party is here in Paquiestancia and apparently there will be a castle built out of fireworks that will be lit. I’m excited to take pictures of that!

I put some pictures up on my Facebook page, you can go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2369300&id=19227721&l=556e35d7f4 to see them!

Nueva familia

I just spent my first weekend with my host family. Here is a long summary of their lives and mine for the last few days. The mother stays at home while the father is working in construction building houses, mostly in Cayambe. He also built their house. They have 4 kids – Marta 16, Angel 14, Flor 12, and Ruby 7. I have a separate entrance to my room – it has a cement floor and they put a chair, dresser, table and bed in here for me. They put 5 blankets on my bed which is good because its actually pretty cold, especially at night. I didn’t have a pillow though, maybe they just don’t use them here really, so I’m using my sleeping bag for a pillow. I am about the 14th volunteer that has stayed in their house; there is one each February to April, then June to August of each year and they had the first one 7 years ago. The community has about 1000 people, and they are mostly all farmers. My family has some land up on the hill about a 15 minute walk away where they keep their 7 cows. At 4:30 every morning they go milk them, and then again in the afternoon they walk up with their 2 dogs to move them to a different field for the night. They get 40 liters of milk each day that they sell. Besides these animals they have a cat and 2 kittens, chickens, 2 pigs, a horse (that is kept in the forest near the cows not in the yard) and I think that’s it. In the yard they grow sooo many fruits and vegetables that I can’t even list them all – I know they have “tomato of tree,” uvillas, 2 types of quinoa, blackberries, corn, cabbage, green onion, and lots of herbs including anise, chamomile, oregano… They also have a little store in the upper level of their house. They sell candy, pop, other snacks and stuff as well as rice, flour and other grains in bulk. There is a doorbell on the door to the store and when it rings – at any hour – one of the kids usually runs up the stairs outside to go sell something. Last night apparently someone rang at about 1 AM wanting to buy some alcohol so my dad didn’t get to sleep very well. The parents sleep in a room with the youngest daughter, which is also the room they all sit in to watch TV. The two girls share a room and a double size bed, and the boy has his own room, but only the parent’s room has a door. The bathroom also has a door, but no shower curtain for the shower. They do have hot water, but there are wires on the ceiling connected to the shower head that somehow heats the water. They only have one bath towel. Today was Father’s Day, so the mom made an orange cake, and we melted some of the chocolate chips I gave them and used it as frosting. We also had “consume de pollo” which is a soup they make for special occasions that has chicken feet and heads, as well as potatoes, carrots, peas, onions and another local vegetable in chicken broth. They also made it so I could try all these new foods while I’m here instead of getting out to my site and not knowing anything about the local food, so I’m interested to see what else they will make for me. The first day we had quinoa soup for lunch and a type of chicken noodle soup for dinner. We ate leftover soup for breakfast and had an egg sandwich too and oatmeal with guayaba in it. They feed the leftover soup to the cats, the bones and any meat scraps (basically nothing though because they pick the chicken up from the soup and suck the meat off the bones) to the dogs, and potato peels and banana peels etc to the pigs. I guess they buy corn or something for the chickens, but it’s cool how they have pretty much no trash. It’s also good because they only have a small refrigerator in the parent’s bedroom that they keep raw chicken in, and maybe some other things, but there usually are no leftovers. We spent this weekend playing lots of card games with the kids, watched some movies and soccer games on TV, went to Cayambe this morning to buy some stuff to sell in the store (they go to the market every Sunday) and played some games outside after walking up to the cows and taking the scenic route home. Tomorrow morning I start my Spanish classes in the house of another volunteer, and then we are all coming here for lunch. We are supposed to buy our own lunch, but there are no restaurants in the area so we might be doing that every day and give my mom some extra money. By the way, we pay our families from the money that the Peace Corps gives us, and I paid $96 for 2 weeks which covers breakfast, dinner, and my room and everything else they help me with. They are very nice, although at times Ruby is a little too nice and always wants to hang out with me. I really like living here and I think my Spanish will improve a lot just spending time with them because we seem to be talking all the time. I have a picture of them, but right now the internet connection isn´t working or something...

Training assignment

For the last two days we've just been sitting in the Peace Corps office in Quito having sessions on safety and security, the goal of our general assignment (community health), the overall Peace Corps philosophy, and some other stuff.  I felt pretty overwhelmed before I got here, but I feel like although these first days have been kind of boring at times just watching Power Point presentations, I already feel a lot more prepared.  Now I know the 3 main goals of the community health program (child/maternal health, reproductive health/rights, and environmental health), and know a lot more about the principles behind the Peace Corps.  I thought it was interesting that as soon as we start a project in our communities we are supposed to be thinking of an "exit strategy," meaning that the project is sustainable and the development in the community can continue without the help of a volunteer.  We are supposed to be focusing on developing people, not things, so that they realize the capacity they have to develop their own things.

Today we finally found out where we will be living for training (which is actually only 9 weeks, I thought it was 3 months).  I will be in Paquiestancia, a "suburb" of Cayambe with 4 other volunteers.  We will each be with our own host family which we will meet tomorrow and spend the whole weekend with.  I'm excited to meet them, so I don't really have anything else to write until after that!

Preparation...

Well, here's my first post of my blog for Ecuador.  I leave in 4 days and I will be so relieved because everything I've been preparing for will be done.  I have had so many doctor's appointments, filled out so much paperwork, bought lots of stuff to take with me, and packed it all to fit in my bags.  I've put my packing list below, just in case you're interested!


Sleeping bag
2 sheets, 2 pillowcases
2 towels
5 books
Ecuador travel book
photo album
Colorado postcards, peanut butter, chocolate chips (gifts for host family)
Journal
paper and envelopes
7 pairs of shoes
cardigan
2 hoodies
raincoat
fleece jacket
2 other lightweight jackets
2 dresses
3 pairs of jeans
3 other pairs of pants
3 skirts
2 shorts
2 capris
9 T-shirts
4 long sleeve shirts
6 tank tops
20 pairs of underwear
20 pairs of socks
6 bras
winter hat
mittens
surge protector
solar charger
laptop
camera
iPod
flash drive
headlamp
deck of cards, Uno, Apples to Apples
toiletries - including 8 toothbrushes and 5 deodorants!
markers
scissors
duct tape
Nalgene
sewing kit
ziploc bags
pocket knife
sunscreen

Think that's about it...

So I leave Denver on Monday evening, have a orientation session in Washington DC for an afternoon, the leave for Ecuador on Wednesday morning.  The first few days we will spend in Quito, the capital, going through more orientation and training.  Then we will all travel to Cayambe, a town a little north of Quito, where will we stay for the rest of training.  We will all live with host families in communities surrounding Cayambe for the first 3 months.  Every day will consist of language training, as well as training in health and safety, culture, and technical training for our jobs.

I don't really know too many details about what happens next, or really even during the training.  I'm not really even able to have expectations which could be a good thing because no matter what happens I won't be dissapointed!